The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-06-08
BOOKwALTER'S VIEWS.
WHAT nE HAS TO SAY ON SOME
ECONOMIC QUESTIONS.
The wheat supply OF the "o''' Ms
Principal Topio-He Fears an Err OF
nonr.ss,op in n Comparatively snort
Timc-some other Matters.
lsnoclal Correspondencel

valfar the well known mllIlonaiic hi"i
,urer Of Springfield, o., was IN TINS Guy 'he
o,hor dav. and enjoyed the renewal OF an
IA aconaintance with him, begun when we
,,.oro classmates in "the good old times before
a. a. MIR Bookwalter has Travelled
much abroad and studied economic questions
,orcfullv He has in consequence written
many articles for financial journals IN Lon.
do,, and New York which have attracted
,nnch attention. At present he is deyoting
al his energies 10 the development OF rall-
,.ove and other industries in southeastern
Nebraska and northeastern Kansas, where ne
owns "a little tract Of 10000 acres" as be
calls il. Only few years ago 1t was vas
sheep ranch; but already the land has grown
TOO valuable 10 be used for grazing purposes
only. and dairying and other industries are
increasing.
~ reasoned the matter thus" says Mr.. H.,
@wben | bought that tract remembered
that in 1906 my father went from his place
In Shawnee fountain county, Ind with
view Of investing "a few hundred dollars IN
Illinois. he came back with his money and
said. 'Oh. il will never amount TO
ANYTHING in my chdren's time-theres
millions on millions Of country out
there-it won't be filed up for century 80
said nv father in 1855 Now all that area
he turned his back on is worth from go TO
eco an acre. Then the land untaken was
big strip and that settled little one-it was
three 10 one. BY my time the three TO one
was the other way-the settled land was
bio piece. the unsettled a little one. SO
said. If this proportion has changed in my
-. mid will
strip gor It's going fast The good land at
the disposal Of this government is very nearly
exhausted"
"Well when it is | suppose the land owning
farmers will have il all their own way"
ooh. not at all-that is, for several years.
I'm fact there are forces now in action that
bid fair 10 depress the farming industry in
this country for several years. and when
farming is depressed everything else soon
will be The fact is our farmers and legisla-
tors have made two or three tremendous mis-
takes in estimating the markets Of the work..
Did it never strike you as curious fact that
the years we had the biggest wheat crops were
invariably the years in which we got the best
price for it-1S54, 1854 and 1873 for instancel
Indeed It was invariably so till 1882. Then
these new forces Of which l speak began TO
take effect, and since then, with minor fluctu-
ations. Of course, the price Of farm produce
has steadily tended downward. And for
aueht can see it will stay low or 60 lower
for several years-ndeed, until there is an
other revolution in the worlds trade; but
that is 80 many years ahead that no sensible
man viii prophesy about it.
"Please explain"
chat is easily done There is a deal Of hui
man nature in an Englishman-he wants to
sell where he buys and buy whore he sells
SO he has been developing the wheat and cot
ton supply IN other countries so be could buy
his supplies with what be had 20 sell The re
sult has been an enormous development in
India. and considerable in the Argentine Re
public and elsewhere The first shipment of
wheat from India TO England was a few hun
,red bushels-a trial cargo In 1875 the ship
ment was 800 600 bushels; in 1876, 100000
bushels and in 1873, ~ OO, 0OO then it fell Oft
for year or two. The second growth was
enormous; in 1ssl-Sl it was 100000; the
next year, 81, 0OO and now il nears 80
100000 just think how that knocks down
the American farmers price. Then compare
that increase with the decreasing scale of
wheat prices in New York If the increase
continues even five years there will be no for
eign market whatever for American wheat,
and the price viii go down towel, you can
calculate for yourself the value Of an article
of which there is an enormous surplus and
no demand for 1t. The Chicago men may de
ceive themselves for awhile with the idea
that they can maintain prices by holding 49,
100000 bushels or so in the elevators, but they
do not deceive any man I'm the worlds
market That 10000, 900 is taken into account
every day in the British market; it is Just
as much factor in holding down the price
in London and Liverpool as if it were on
open sale right there; for those fellows reason
very justly that nobody knows just when the
whole combination will break and al, 100 coo
bushels of wheat be poured on the market
No, those fellows are making just the same
mistake the bonanza men of Nevada and the
silver senators Of Colorado made about the
silver dollar These men thought that by
storing up 100000 or more month in the
treasury they would create an artificial scar
city Of silver and 50 appreciate the silver
dollar; but every financier in Europe knows
that in a sudden emergency like war. for in
stance, all that silver would come fiying out
,
taken into account just as much as if IL were
on sale in London or Berlin For the matter
Of that, however, if they wanted TO appreci-
ate silver, their true policy would have been
to make the silver dollar equal 10 the gold,
for making II light weight" or IS cent dollar
is just the same as adding IS per cent Of the
amount 20 the free silver in the worlds mar
ket. No, the trade Of the world is too big a
thing for any one man OF nation 70 catch
We must trade according to the laws Of trade
in the world as whole OF suffer the conse-
quences."
But we've got 'em on the come out, as
Jonas Harrison says m Egglestons Hooser
novel We have new continent 70 work OH,
and they"--
"Oh, there's the great error-the champion
American errOI-this idea that the eastern
continent is exhausted, over populated It's
frightnl blunder Why, in India alone are
100000 square miles Of fertile land capable of
reclamation. In the Punjaub alone are 10000
square miles Of such land. In the northwest
f..rtft 4 III.